


Santa Clarita: Duo Arrives

by duointherain



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: 1x2x1, M/M, Santa Clarita, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-17 15:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3534113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duointherain/pseuds/duointherain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's after Endless Waltz... peace is making everything better. Politics really wants fall guys for the violence in the war and the boys are about to discover new aspects of peace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Fic: Santa Clarita: Duo Arrives 1/?  
by Max

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

Note: I also am drawing this as a comic, which is on my website: www.faithinthemoon.com  
This story is set after the war, after Endless Waltz. Frozen Teardrop did not happen in this timeline. This is an important story to me - so much of my own emotional processing in this story, so now I’m doubling back and writing it over again.

Chapter One

Everything was great.

Until it wasn’t.

They had had an apartment in Rio.Heero spent his days reading, mostly. Duo mostly spent his days watching Heero and drinking beer, drawing unless shit. It wasn’t like they were happy, but it was the best either of them had ever had. It was like if they kept their heads down, then it could go on like that forever.

Peace was damn fine and Rio had fucking fine beer.

So there they were, one sunny afternoon, in their one room place, beans in the crockpot, the window open, the world was as good as it could get.

Then the door crumpled under a military grade battering ram.

For a very small moment that seemed to last way too long, a barefooted Duo Maxwell and a glazed eyed Heero Yuy stared at a full half a dozen of armored and battle ready special weapons team. The incursion team seemed to pause as if they too were a bit surprised.

Duo reached for his beer that he had tucked by the wall, carefully lifted it so everyone could see it was a bottle, before he took a solid drink of his beer. That moment came to an end when he smashed the bottle and lunged up under the closest guard, putting the broken edge of his bottle to the officer’s exposed chin.

Heero and his new pacifist values lingered another moment, but managed to get between Duo’s head and a billy club coming towards it. Blood splattered and Duo pushed the bottle up, drawing blood even though the cop leaned and evaded. He’d picked up capoeira in the six months they’d been in Brazil and spun, his bare foot hitting the shield of another officer with enough force to drive him back.

Heero went out the open window, leaving his hand reaching down until Duo grabbed it and Heero pulled him up to the roof. Under the bright Brazilian sun they ran over favela rooftops. Rough hot tar felt good to Duo’s bare feet. Breathing fast, braid flaring as he spun and jumped, they were free and he knew in his deepest being they’d always be that way.

Then Heero went down, knees bending, upper body already slack as he fell. Duo’s mouth opened, but there wasn’t enough time for thoughts to form completely before a second dart hit him in the shoulder. He reached for Heero, thought about his unfinished drawing and hit the rough tar roofing, siding across it on his cheek, leaving skin and blood. His last thought before darkness was that they hadn’t done anything... They just hadn’t done anything wrong.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joel visits Duo

Fic: Santa Clarita: Duo Arrives 2/?  
by Max

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

 

The bed was wrong. Duo rolled onto his side, pulled the blankets up over his shoulders, knees up closer to his chest. He wanted his room in Rio. He wanted to be with Heero. He didn’t want a cage. He didn’t want the memories that swelled in his mind so much that they cut off his breath. He printed walls as fast as he could to keep the memories he didn’t want from coming into full bloom.

“Hey brat,” Joel said. “Wake up.”

Cigarette smoke!

Duo’s eyes went wide. He tensed, hyper aware of everything in the room, plotting the man’s distance, size, the kind of cigarette, the echo in the room, building details out of no details at all in some hyper vigilant need to know where he was. His tongue worried at his upper lip. He didn’t want to roll over... exposing his belly, but he really couldn’t just lay there shivering and pretending to sleep either. The man didn’t sound ... hostile.. and there was a little edge of Sweeper accent to his words.

“Aaaan. You like that,” Joel said, amping up the faster words, the soft consonants that painted his words Sweeper. “I grew up on Sorda 9.”

Duo rolled up, keeping the blankets around him. His head throbbed from the movement and he suddenly wanted water so badly. The man sitting in the psych ward room with him was tallish, blond, curly hair, green eyes, that cigarette resting against his lower lip, like the scent of a flower to a bee. Duo swallowed, felt his throat dry and sore. Fuck, he had to learn to stop fucking screaming. “Locktight,” he greeted him.

“Locktight,” Joel agreed. “I’m Joel Musgraves. I work for Preventers and Sweeper Security Concerns. My husband, Allen Musgraves, runs a group home for kids with issues. We want you to come live with us.”

“Fuck you,” Duo said, face pale, lips dry, violet eyes big in his blanket framed face. “I ain’t a kid. I ain’t goin back to no fuckin orphanage.”

“Our kids aren’t orphans, Duo,” Joel said, looking at the door, then holding the cigarette out, butt first. “We adopt’em. I can’t say that I make a great father figure, but Allen is pretty fantastic.”

“I ain’t a kid,” Duo said, taking Joel’s cigarette down by a centimeter in one drag, “Don’t need a father. I need these fuckers to let me and ‘Ro go.”

“Yer a public figure, Duo Maxwell,” Joel said, pulling another cigarette out of a very nice titanium cigarette case, “and people want what they think is justice. War is a terrible thing and part of moving on is closure. People want justice.”

Duo swung his legs over the side of the narrow bed, an elbow on his knee, as he made smoke rings contentedly for a moment. “So they’re gonna send my ass to prison? Fuck’em! They can’t hold me. And when I get out, I’ll give’em somethin to need fuckin justice for. Bastards. Self centered crazy fuckers! They shoulda left me alone!”

They sat there, smoking in a very no smoking area for another couple sets of smoke rings.

Nothing in Joel’s body language said he was even remotely afraid of Duo. His cigarette went down a lot slower than Duo’s did too.

“So,” Duo said, taking the last long drag before he was just licking on the butt, “if I confess to everything, like everything, and like... so well, would they let Heero just go? He’s no threat to anyone. He’s smart and kind and he can make it. He was only livin in that dump of a place because it made me happy. He’s not a criminal.”

“And you are?”

“Gimme another cigarette, promise to get Heero out, and I’ll admit to any fucking shit you want.”

“Well,” Joel said, pulling his case out again and holding out, not even batting an eye when Duo grabbed three. He tossed the lighter over. “You are a fucked up little shit, aren’t you? I like you. Allen was right.”

Duo’s hand shook as he lit up his next cigarette. “Fuck you.”

“There is a faction pushing to have you executed.”

“Isn’t the first fucking time,” Duo said, making solid work of his current smoke. “Are they after Heero too?”

“He has more powerful allies. More outspoken allies,” Joel said. “Confederated Sweepers has threatened to withdraw from ESUN if you are not released into Sweeper custody. They will cut off access to many of the deep space mining operations if you are sent to prison.”

“Tell those fuckers to knock it off,” Duo said, lighting up the second cigarette. “I ain’t worth another war. I don’t want no more war.”  
“Good,” Joel said. “I’m glad you don’t want war, but you are worth it. So what’s going to happen is you’re going to go to a sentencing hearing tomorrow.”

“No trial?” Duo snorted, wanting to save and hoard his last smoke, but knowing he wouldn’t be able to hide it and the lighter after this powerful man left.

“You were tried in absentia,” Joel said. “Maybe you should have kept a little more active data connection when you were hiding out in that hole.”

“We didn’t want them to find us,” Duo admitted. “Got anything to drink?”

“Water,” Joel said, motioning at the sealed water bottles on the night stand. “Well, they found you anyway. In your favor, it did take them a solid amount of effort. Freaked them out right good.”

“Good,” Duo said, cigarette hanging from his lips as he opened up a bottle. “So? Am I gonna go to prison?”

“No. Tomorrow you are going to dress up in the suit I brought you. The sweepers have sent you a chief mark.”

“Really,” Duo said, eyes wide at the surprise honor. “No fucking way!”

Joel clicked his cheek. “Then you’re going to go down to that courtroom with your head held high. You will tell the judge that you want no part of war, thank her for the three years of probation she’s going to give you, and then you’ll fly home to Wyoming with me.”

“And Heero?”

“I have heard that he is to be offered a very secure position in L1-Prime. It is thought that he will be groomed for politics and many people think he’s going to marry Relena Darlian.”

“He’s my husband.”

“Not yet, he’s not.”

Duo lit the last cigarette. “But he’ll be free and safe? No more experiments, no more bullshit?”

“He will be safe,” Joel promised.

“Good,” Duo said.

“Everything is going to be okay.”

“I’m Christian.”

“Okay,” Joel said, snuffing his cigarette out. “Good to know. They’ll return your effects to you tomorrow, when I pick you up. Do you need religious artifacts now, to feel comfortable?”

“No,” Duo said, confused. “I just meant, I ain’t afraid o’dying.”

“Well, you’re afraid of hurting Heero, right?”

Duo lifted his chin, nose wrinkling, violet eyes challenging.

“If you kill yourself, he’ll be hurt. I promise. No matter what the powerful have planned for him, he loves you. His life will not be easier if you die. Do you understand that? Really understand that?”

“Fuck you,” Duo said, but he nervously gulped down more water and he pushed away thoughts of dying.

When Joel was near the door, Duo spoke a little louder, “Thanks.” He tossed the lighter back. “For, you know, thanks.”

“You like cows, kid?”

“I ain’t met no cows. What kinda people are they? And what the hell’s a Wyoming? It’s a place right?”

“Wyoming is a place. You don’t know what a cow is?”

“Is it like a Sikh or something? I met some of those here.”

“Not unless you’re trying to date his kid.”

Duo nodded, knowingly, “Well, no problem there. I’m taken.”

“See ya tomorrow, Chief Maxwell.”

Duo lay back as the blond left, knowing he wasn’t going to sleep anymore that night, taking his time with his last cigarette, just letting that sink in... Chief Maxwell. He smirked, ran his tongue around the end of his cigarette, imagining it was Heero’s tongue.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo has his day in court.

 

Santa Clarita: Duo Arrives 3/?  
by duointherain

 

Duo stared at the judge. She stared back.

Her eyes narrowed. 

He stood straight and tall, just like the weird blond dude had told him to. He’d taken the time to braid temple braids. His stomach dropped as she continued to stare at him from her elevated desk. His temple throbbed. This was his last moment and he knew it. He didn’t have Q’s money, Wu’s status, Heero’s genuine goodness, and he wasn’t smart like Trowa and never get caught in the first fucking place, no he was the idiot and the monster. 

“So exactly,” she asked, her nose wrinkling just a little, “what is that you’re wearing, Mr. Maxwell?”

For a moment, Duo couldn’t get air into his throat, let alone down into his lungs. He wore a pilot’s compression suit, made just for him, painted with diffuse shapes that wouldn’t have looked like anything, if one didn’t know what was was looking for. It had a holographic demon wing and he loved it. The more he tried to keep his lip from trembling, the more his temple throbbed. “Yeah? Well, what’s that shit yer wearing? A curtain from the hotel? Late to work?”

The judge, Quatre, and Joel all covered their faces with their hands in that moment. Hand still over her face, she took a slow breath. “Mr. Maxwell,” taking another deep breath, before placing both hands on her bench. “This court has found you guilty of crimes against humanity.”

Duo’s lips tightened and he lifted up his chin a little more, tears slipping down towards his ears. He’d tried to do good things. He had. He’d saved lives, when he could. He had been angry though and he had wanted revenge and he had killed sometimes when he hadn’t had to and he knew it. He closed his eyes, imagined Heero’s blue eyes when he was smiling, and told himself that Heero was going to be safe. “Yeah, yeah, I did that shit.”

“This court also finds that there are immensely mitigating circumstances that drove your actions which were driven by an environment of war which has touched all of us. Redemption is available to all of us as well, Mr. Maxwell. This court sentences you to life in prison with a suspended sentence. You will, however, need to serve three years probation in the care of competent caregivers who will help you integrate into society.”

Duo hadn’t really hear much past the life sentence. “I mean... what the is that? Why not just kill me and be done with it,” Duo said, desperate violet eyes scanning the room... there had to be a suitable weapon somewhere.  
“Duo,” Quatre said, his shoes clicking against the floor. “Listen to me.”

Duo turned, violet eyes blurred with tears. Now there were all these things he wanted to do... he wanted to go home to their apartment in Rio. He wanted to see Heero again. He wanted to pet a cat. He wanted... to see the sky. He wanted to get off this fucking insane rock with all the crazy people and go the fuck really home. Life in prison! They’d never keep him!

“Duo!” Quatre said, reaching slowly out to lay his hands on Duo’s shoulders. “It’s a suspended sentence... no prison. You’re not going to a prison. You’re just going to a home with other children. You have to pretend to be a kid for three years.”

“What?” Duo asked, both hands going to his head. “But I’m not a kid.”

“It’s a technicality, Duo. You’re only fifteen.”

“I might be older,” Duo protested, wiping the back of his hand across his face. “Can’t I go to L4 with you?”

“Heero asked to go to America, because he thought you were going there. Heero is going to be in America and his probation is only a year. In a year, we can get him emancipated and he can likely join you.” 

“A year? What does emancipated mean?”

“To be free of constraints. We’ll have him declared legally an adult.” 

“I want to be emancipated,” Duo said firmly.

“Excuse me boys,” the judge snapped. “I do believe there is a restraining order between all of the pilots for at least one year.”

“I am acting as Mr. Maxwell’s legal council. Duo, you do wish to retain my services, do you not?”

“Yeah,” Duo said, nodding vigorously.

The judge rolled her eyes, rubbed her temple. “Mr. Winner, you would need to be a lawyer for that to be the case. Are you, in fact, a lawyer, Mr. Winner.” 

He smiled, a vicious and victorious smile, like a blond avalance about to fall. “Why, as it happens, Your Honor, I am a lawyer. If you will check your screen, you will see that the American Bar Association has accepted me as a member in good standing and I am therefore eligible to represent Mr. Maxwell. As his lawyer, I would like the assurances of this court that the records of his conviction will be completely expunged after he satisfactorily completes the probationary period.” 

“हरामी,” she whispered, almost enough under her breath. “Gentlemen, no one in the ESUN is ever likely to forget Mr. Maxwell, the good or the bad, and while I do have it within my power to see that his conviction is expunged, as per the requested terms, it doesn’t change anything.”

“आपकी बुद्धि ही आपका गुरु है।,” Quatre said sweetly. He turned to Duo and winked, “The mind is your master.” Smiling back at her, he wiggled his fingers in her direction. “Make it as I’ve requested, please. I think my client has experienced enough distress today and I would like him immediately released to care of his adoptive parent.”

“Yes,” she said, nodding, eyes still wide. “Nothing would give me greater pleasure, Mr. Winner. A more fitting parent for Mr. Maxwell, I can not imagine. Should there be fatalities before the end of the year, I refuse to accept responsibility for this outcome, as we well know this court has experienced duress. Strike that from the record, that last sentence,” she said to the recorder. “Get the hell out of my court. We will quickly take care of Mr. Barton and be done with this affair!”

Quatre motioned for Joel to come closer, a hand on Duo’s shoulder. “Go with him, Duo. Trust him and his marriage partners. Think of it as a prolonged safe house.”

“Q? Heero?”

“He is fine. Don’t worry, Duo. Trust me.” 

“I mostly trust you, Q.” Duo said, suddenly throwing his arms around his lawyer, hugging him almost too tightly. “I’m scared.”

Q tugged his braid gently. “I’m taking care of everything. Go. I think you’ll enjoy Wyoming.”  
“What the hell with this Wyoming place?” Duo said, but Joel was motioning for him to join him and Joel looked like he was moving towards the door, and really, Duo wanted the hell out of there. 

 

Half an hour later, Duo had put his temple braids back into his regular braid, changed into jeans and a tee-shirt, runners. Joel had brought him a backpack, a journal, and a new mechanical pencil. It felt like he was moving through fog, really, like the arrest in Rio and the time in jail, and Heero being on a different shuttle out of this place than he was, it all just felt unreal. “I suppose a cigarette is out of the question,” Duo said, finding his best con artist grin. 

“Yup,” Joel said, a cigarette between his lips. “I don’t even smoke at home. Martha’s a doctor and she’s really intense about not smoking. She’ll give you patches though, so the withdrawal isn’t so bad. I know this wasn’t what you wanted and I know it probably seems really unfair.”

“Don’t fuckin talk to me like I’m a child. We’re both Sweepers, right? You do what you need to do.”

“It’s not like that on every ship, every station, Duo. It’s not like that here. I love Allen the way you love Heero. I’d do anything for him. He grew up in America. He loves kids. He makes things better. I’m not gonna tell you that I understand what he does, but he does it. You and Heero want a chance at a really good life, you should listen to what Allen has to say.” 

“We had a good life. Fucker.” 

“Living in a hovel drinking enough beer to wash away a small town? Yeah, sounds fucking fantastic.” Joel sat in the window, one booted foot pressed against the window frame, his cigarette hanging between his fingers. “The ranch is a good place. You’ll learn a lot there and we’ll welcome Heero when he can join us. Just enjoy it.”

Duo zipped up the backpack, his suit in it, and slung it over his shoulder. “At least Heero will know where to find me when we decide to get off this rock.”

“You keep telling yourself that, kid,” Joel tossed the last of his cigarette into the toilet and held open the door. “War is shit. This isn’t a bad outcome. We’ve got a ways to go, so stop bitching and let’s go.”

“You’re really not much for people, are you? I’m better at talkin to folk than you are.”

“Yeah? Bet you are,” Joel held open the door. “Let’s go prove what a nice upstanding dude you are.”

“Fuck you,” Duo said, striding through the door and then turning walking backwards, hands on his backpack straps. “So? You’re an assassin?”

Joel’s eyebrows shot up. “What makes you think that?”

“You’re an asshole. You’re strong, lean, there’s power to you. You’re armed, but it’s like they’re just a part of you. You ain’t scared of me, or for me. Q gave you your distance. The judge was afraid of you. You gonna kill me?”

“Not if I don’t have to,” Joel said seriously. 

“Good,” Duo said, moving off down the hall with a sudden and unexpected cheerfulness. “If you do, base of the skull. I don’t wanna see it coming.” 

“It’s not going to come to that,” Joel said firmly. “Take the stairs, all the way down.” 

“Fifty flights?” Duo said, making a face like one eye larger and his nose wrinkled. “What’s wrong with the elevator? I could fix it, probably, yeah?”

“Stairs,” Joel said firmly. 

In this part of the Palace of Justice the elevators had glass walls that faced the courtyard, which was currently filled with thousands of protesters, both for and against the pilots. It wasn’t as if they were the only pilots or fighters in the wars, but they had come to be the most visible and recognizable. Mary had said it reminded her of the ancient world and gladiatorial favorites, and that only made Joel glad he wasn’t interested in history. Humans had always been dumb fuckers, as far as he could tell. 

Duo sighed and took off down the stairs at a run. There hadn’t been much opportunity to exercise while he’d been confined, so now, it felt fantastic. He was going to get everything figured out! He was! He heard the door slam above him and the blond take off at a run down the stairs too. About ten floors he ran into some of Heero’s hand writing on the wall. It was written in dryerase marker, in Japanese and read, ‘Go left. You’ll know when.’ Duo quickly wiped Heero’s message away, only seeing the small little heart right before the last swipe. 

Okay.

Game on. 

Go left. 

Duo grinned, looked back up the winding stair case. “You comin old man?”


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joel gets Duo safely to the shuttle... which shouldn't have been as hard as it turned out.

fic: Santa Clarita: Duo Arrives 4  
by duointherain

disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

Note: This story is on its second path through.. it started as a time travel story, and it’s still a time travel story... Heero has just changed things, here and there, to get an outcome he likes.

Duo felt so much better at the bottom of the stairs. They hadn’t planned on living in that shit of a room forever and now they weren’t running from any legitimate governments anymore. As pissy as he still wanted to be, he trusted Heero to take care of himself. Hell, Heero was the most sane and competent human Duo could even imagine. He accepted that Heero was really above his hopes and maybe, just like neither of them had planned on living in a favela forever, maybe Heero hadn’t really planned on hanging out with a no account worthless, half rabid rat either, and, after fifty flights of stairs, Duo was bounding from one foot to the other, grinning, determined to be way better than he’d ever been, to be someone that folk could see with Heero Yuy. “Hurry up, Joel! I want a coffee!”

Joel clung to the railing on the landing before the last flight, upper lip curling in a near snarl. “You are too fucking enhanced for me. I do not think you need no fucking coffee, Maxwell. For security reasons, we need to avoid public places. No coffee. What did you wipe off the wall?”

Duo shrugged like he didn’t know what Joel was talking about. 

Joel pointed to the marker on the edge of Duo’s hand, made a tsking sound.

Duo sighed dramatically, shoulders rising then slumping. “Fine. Heero left me a message. He said to go left.” 

“He can’t have done,” Joel said. He knew Heero’s schedule and there was no way Heero made it into the stairwell, let alone got hold of a marker. 

“Well, he did. There are things.. you know.. I can tell it was him. The letters were a little bigger than I’d expect, but the message was written by Heero.” 

“Thanks for sharing. Think in the future you could tell me when you first find out something?”

Duo crossed his arms. “No. You think next time we have to sneak out through the basement like fugitives, we can bring some fucking coffee or maybe some water?”

“Yeah, can do. Move on though, we’ve got about 24 km to go.”  
“Waaaahhh,” Duo groaned. “Why can’t we just take shuttle? I’ll put on a hoodie. You too, what with that gold hair. It’s not like you stand out or anything. I can be discrete,” Duo said, making a motion of both hands sliding across a smooth surface. “The garage is like 24 km wide? That’s fucked up.” 

“It’s not a garage,” Joel said, winking. “It’s a catacomb.”

Duo shoved his hands in his back pockets, one eye twitching, as he thought about that.

“Don’t worry,” Joel promised as he opened a door that hadn’t even been visible before he opened it. “They’re all dead.” 

Duo’s face went pale, long, big violet eyes wide. 

“What the hell is that look for?”

“A 24 wide pet grooming shop, but they’re all dead. Dirt kickers are gross!” 

“Don’t use that term,” Joel said, closing the door after them. He handed Duo a bracelet that gave off enough light to be a decent sphere around him. “Racial slurs are rude. It’s not a pet grooming shop. It’s a place where ancient humans are buried.” 

Now in sharper shadow, Duo’s mouth dropped open and he grimaced, face twisting up. “OH that makes it all better then. Why would they keep the bodies? Didn’t they need the nutrients back into the system?”

Joel moved to lead the way. “The bodies decomposed, Duo. Earth is a closed system. It’s not like they were jettisoning them or anything. There is something comforting about being able to visit one’s ancestors.” 

“Yeah? Seems fucking creepy to me,” Duo said, following along, kicking at a rock as they passed from concrete into ancient stone. “Ain’t nothing dead folk can do for ya.”

“So you don’t have any family?”

“Got Heero, and Q, Wu, and Troman. You?”

“I am married to Allen, Mary, Martha, and M2.”

“Fuckin pervert,” Duo snickered appreciatively. “What’cha gonna do when they catch you?”

“We are all married to each other,” Joel said, sternly, glaring over his shoulder. “My god, did you learn anything other than how to blow shit up? Cows are animals, too, just so you know.”   
“Racial slurs are rude,” Duo snapped, mirroring Joel’s parental attempts back at him. “Wait, wait! What is this!” 

Duo had paused in front of a little inset in the wall. He held his left wrist out, bathing the little alcove in a gentle full spectrum light. A set of human bones were neatly piled on each other, long limbs in a stack with a skull resting on top. The empty eye sockets stared him, and all the hair on his head stood right on end. With barely enough breath, he prayed as he made the sign of the cross, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, Hallowed be thy name!” 

“Duo,” Joel said, hesitating, “Come on. You’ve seen dead people before.” 

“Yeah,” Duo said, making the cross again, “Like when they were still people. This dude is like... not people anymore. It’s like, just the frame. It’s like.... parts of a machine. I wanna repair it.” 

“It doesn’t work that way, Duo,” Joel said, standing reverently with Duo in front of the little shrine. “So, like you’re a Christian, right?”

“Yeah.” 

“So don’t you believe in the second coming of Jesus?”

“Uh,” Duo said, looking up at the taller man. The truth was he’d only been at the church for a couple of years and there had always been something going on and he didn’t really remember a huge great deal of what had been taught, but like, he’d been pretty wild then, and well, as he stood there in front of those dusty old bones, “Why would he come again? Didn’t we like, you know, kill him pretty bad? I saw some Alliance fuckers crucify someone once. They ended up shooting’im cuz he wouldn’t shut the fuck up. Looked like it hurt.” 

Joel grimaced as Duo spoke, but nodded. “Yeah. I hear that it makes a person drown. So you believe in the immortal soul though, don’t you?”

Duo shrugged. “I guess. Heero says its bullshit though and I don’t know where a soul is. I ain’t never seen one. You?”

“I believe in the soul,” Joel said. “Lots of things can’t be seen.” 

“Can we fix this person?” Duo said, reaching with trembling fingers to touch the very old bones. “Did they die in the war?”

“No, we can’t fix them. The brain is gone. This person died like a thousand years ago, Duo.” 

Duo gasped and jumped back. “Whoaaa.” 

“Kid, the shit you don’t know is like,” Joel said, looking at Duo sideways, “is like... a lot.” 

“Fuck you,” Duo said, leaning closer to the bones, “but the DNA is here, right? We could... replace the missing parts.” 

“And the memories? Can you replace those?” 

Duo shrugged, staring at the skull, trying to imagine what kind of eyes belonged in those spaces. “They’d make new ones.”

“Yeah, well, you should talk philosophy with M2. She’s way more into it than I ever will be. It’s a long walk to the shuttle too. We aren’t stopping at every set of bones.”

“There are more,” Duo groaned. “Are there a lot?”

“Hundreds of thousands,” Joel said, heading off in the direction they needed to go.

“That’s so gross! How come no one does anything about this? Does Heero know about this?”

“How should I know if Heero knows,” Joel asked, trying to walk fast enough to make the shorter legged teenager have to jog to keep up. “They’re just bones. There’s nothing to be done about them. They all the way back to the start of Christianity. The pagans tended to burn their dead. I’m not a history guy though. M2.” 

“So all the way back to the beginning of the world,” Duo asked keeping up pretty easy, even if he did have to change his gait a little. “Is this Eden then?”

Joel skidded to a halt, turned and snapped, “Did you ever go to school?”

“Sure! Heero and I hid out in them from time-ta-time. The math parts were pretty good, and physics, and I kinda think I might like poetry, but I didn’t really have time for much of that. When I was with the Sweepers, I was mostly learning everything there is to know about computer systems and piloting. I can pilot anything.”

“That seems a little unbalanced,” Joel said disbelievingly. “You can, I assume, sort the basic stuff, water systems, bio printers.” 

“Sure. Great at that shit.” 

“Sweet. If we need the water systems fixed, you’ll be the first. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. It did not begin with Christianity. Humans are a 160,000 years old.” 

Duo’s eyes narrowed for a moment, calculations going off in his head. “Well, we got right on that shit didn’t we. Where we come from?” He wandered off down a passageway. 

Joel rolled his eyes. “We evolved. What’d yer mother tell you about this shit?” 

“I was never adopted, so I never had one.” 

“You had one, Duo,” Joel said, “Everyone had one, but you should talk to Martha. She’s a doctor. She can explain this shit pretty good.” He was thinking about how irritated she’d be at having to do it, and imagining Duo Maxwell asking all kinds of questions of the resident doctor and control freak brought a smile to his face.

“Yeah, told you, I was never adopted.” 

“Okay then,” Joel said, following the directions that were nudged to him in his light bracelet. “Where to people come from?”

“God,” Duo said seriously, “Father Maxwell said that God creates every human and gives them free will to do right and wrong, because if we didn’t have free will, it wouldn’t mean anything when we do good shit.” 

“So one day you just woke up, running wild on L2 because God made you?”

“Yeah. The government trusts you. You oughta know this stuff.”

“But you look at the bones and think you can just fix these dead folk?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you think their souls are with god?”

“God made me. If I can fix them, then that’s God’s will. Maybe God wants me to fix’em.”

“Maybe,” Joel said, doubtfully. “So you want to be a doctor?”

“Naw, I’m an engineer.”

“Engineers fix machines.”

“People are machines,” Duo said firmly, “How do you know which way to go in here? This shit is crazy.” 

“I have a map programmed into my wristband. If we hurry, we might be able to pick up some barbecue before we take off. Hungry?” 

“Oh yeah! Let’s get burgers!” 

Another five km and Duo stopped, staring at an ancient fresco. Joel headed down the same path his band told him to take. “Joel!”

Joel came back, sighing heavily. “Kid! Come on. I get that art and shit, but you can’t stop all the time. I thought you were hungry.” 

“This is it. We have to go to the left.” 

“No. We follow the map.”

“It’ll recalibrate, won’t it,” Duo said, eyes serious, lips tight.

“Yeah, yeah, but I don’t want to deviate. This is the shortest path.” 

“I gotta go left.”

“Why,” Joel said, the muscles in his jaw twitching. 

“Because... I have to trust Heero and he said left and I’d know when. The world doesn’t make any sense if I don’t trust Heero.” 

“Fine,” Joel snapped, motioning for Duo to lead the way. 

Another km and they heard the explosion in the other passage, the collapsing of rubble. They ran. Duo ran out of breath first, chest heaving, hands on his knees. 

“Those were grenades,” Joel growled, voice low. “You can’t stop!”

“Can’t breath,” Duo wheezed, his efforts at racing down the stairs and the effect of Earth’s greater gravity finally really catching him. “Go. I’ll catch up.”

“It don’t work that way,” Joel snarled, hand on Duo’s arm, dragging him along. 

Then Duo caught the glimmer of something and stretched out his arm, reaching for the bottle of water left in another of the little bone alcoves. In it floated a small blue heart, and Duo had it open, drinking it before Joel could smack it out of his hand, he was drinking it down. 

“Fucking Hell! Duo! Don’t drink stuff you find in a combat zone!” Joel growled at the top of his lungs.

Duo blinked, eyes big, hips shifting unconsciously to the side. He held tightly to the water bottle, but still smiled in some instinctive need to calm down the other man, to win him over to less hostility. There were many things he didn’t know or understand about the world, but being able to almost instinctively manipulate threats was something he’d had down since he was old enough to walk. 

Joel backed away, hands both up as if to defend himself. “What the hell is that? Oh my god, I do not understand children! I’m a ranger not a god damn babysitter!” 

Duo blinked, coming back from the frozen deer moment he’d been in, lifted his chin defiantly, and drank the rest of his water without offering to share. 

“Well, it’s a good think I ain’t a kid, then ain’t it.” 

Joel scratched his head, with both hands, sending blond curls shaking in all directions. “Fucking hell. Burgers. We’re 500 meters from the shuttle. Let’s get out of this damn city and get some burgers, uh?”

“Yer buyin, cuz yer rude and they locked up all my money till I’m off probation.”

“I wasn’t rude! You know Heero can’t have left that water bottle for you. You’re probably drugged or poisoned. Don’t you care?”

“It was from Heero,” Duo said, rolling the little blue heart around on the roof of his mouth. “Heero’s amazing.” 

“Yeah. Amazing,” Joel said, not believing at all, but just glad to get Duo onto the waiting shuttle.

 

  
  
  
  



End file.
